Olga Godim's Blog, page 38

Fantasy Character Interview #15

Today, I welcome to my blog Aleena Kurrin, the protagonist of Guy Estes’s fantasy novel Triad.

1. Tell me a little about yourself—your name, profession, where you live, do you have a family, the usual.

My name is Aleena Kurrin. I live in the town of Sharleah, Kerdonia province. We’re a member of the Artisan League, a confederation of provinces united by economics located on the western side of the Ophirees Mountains. Actually, my home is just outside of Sharleah. I was born one of the Chosen. Chosen are people who are born with two gifts. The major gift is one in which our talent comes as naturally as breathing. In my case, it’s the warrior arts. The minor gift is something we have a strong aptitude for, but we need instruction to reach our full potential. In my case, it’s the bardic arts. It is believed we are chosen by the gods, though why we should be is a mystery. However, others believe we are demonic. We are also quite rare. I’m not a soldier, though. For one thing, the Artisan League has no standing army. We have militias and hire mercenaries, but we mostly secure our safety through economic means. For another, I’m very… temperamentally unsuited for military life. I’m, ah, resistant to most forms of authority. I question things. Both qualities are just in my nature. I’ve always been that way. So, no, military service is out of the question. As of now, I make a living escorting trade caravans. My father is a master blacksmith, one of the most renowned in all the Artisan League and the only human blacksmith apprenticed to the dwarves. He taught me and loved me. He was always there for me. My mother is a master weaver. Like Father, she is one of the top ranking members of her craft and always loved and supported me.

2. What happened to you, so you ended up in this crazy adventure the novel talks about?

It was Chosen versus Chosen. I was born with the gift of the warrior, but I never wanted to harm anybody. I just wanted to be left alone. The first time I ever killed was a traumatic experience—what sharp objects do to a human body is nothing short of horrific—but even worse was seeing what happened when I didn’t kill. Getting abducted by slave traders showed me the true nature of human evil and what happens when I don’t use this gift the gods granted me. My abduction and subsequent experiences after escaping played a vital role in making me understand what my purpose is and giving me the confidence and experience to do it. But as vital as those experiences were, they were decidedly unpleasant. But then, that’s usually the way of it, isn’t it? Our most unpleasant experiences are usually the most educational. The gods granted me the gift, and they required that I live up to its responsibilities, even though I’d rather curl up with a good book. But there was another like me, Anlon, with the same gift, born at the same time. Multiple Chosen living at once is traditionally considered a harbinger of doom. Whereas I wanted the world to simply leave me alone, he wanted the world under his boot. Dealing with him fell to me, since I was the only one who could face him.

3. So the idea of multiple Chosen living at once being a harbinger of doom would seem to be true, wouldn’t it?

Not quite. There is a third Chosen, Baezha. And she…well, let’s just say that she is forged of far different metal than Anlon.

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You can find out more about Guy Estes on his Facebook page

The book – Kindle and print – is available on Amazon

 

Whose bomb?

An article appeared yesterday in The Looking Glass concerning a disturbing event in Vancouver, Canada. My book Squirrel of Magic is involved. It appears, someone attempted to blow up a craft fair in Vancouver, only no one knows whether the culprit was a man or a monkey. Read more here.

Fantasy Character Interview #14 – Beatrice

Today, my guest is Beatrice, the squirrel. She is a familiar of young witch Darya, the protagonist of my urban fantasy short story collection Squirrel of Magic. Because Beatrice is a squirrel, I changed the format of the interview to accommodate her quirky point of view and her long, bushy tail.

Tell me about yourself, Beatrice.

I’m a squirrel-familiar of my witch Darya. I live with her in Vancouver, Canada. I love Darya, but she’s not terribly bright. What could you expect from a Canadian witch? She buys my food at a pet store! How bright is that? I’m not a pet. I’m her familiar and her friend.

What do you do as a familiar?

I rescue my witch from tight situations. Occasionally, I find her wand or help her with her headaches, if she overuses her magic. Sometimes, I act as her spy—nobody notices a squirrel in Vancouver.

How did you become a familiar?

I remember waking up one day and knowing I had to find my witch. She is beautiful and kind, my Darya. Sometimes, she feeds me treats, like mango and pecans, but she’s always trying to save some dumb human, always getting in trouble for someone else. Instead, she should think about finding a mate and reproducing, making little witches.

Do you think about reproducing?

Of course, but male squirrels in Vancouver are too shallow. No nuts from them, no berries, no flowers. They only want one thing, but I crave adventures and romance.

What is your favorite pastime?

I like it when Darya reads to me about squirrels. She read a poem once by a Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Its main character is a magical squirrel. She sings songs and cracks nuts, and all the nuts have golden shells and emerald fruits. That’s a good story, better than some wimpy boy and girl falling in love and then killing themselves.

What is the greatest challenge for a familiar?

Keeping my witch happy. I can even do tricks, although I hate it.

Is this book about you?

[She swishes her tail.] It’s not. It should’ve been. I perform most heroic deeds in this book. Darya would’ve been lost without me, but of course, the author made Darya the leading character of all the stories. What could you expect from a human writer? I might write a book myself one day, and it would be about us, witches’ familiars. Readers should hear our stories.

Squirrel of Magic published

My short story collection Squirrel of Magic has been published. It’s available for $1.99 in several e-formats from Smashwords

Fantasy Character Interview #13

Today, I welcome to my blog Nye, the eighteen-year-old protagonist of Diana Wicker’s YA fantasy The Dreamweaver’s Journey, Book #1 of The Age of Awakenings series.

1. Tell me a little about yourself—your name, profession, where you live, do you have a family, the usual.

I am Nye…well, officially, my name is Master Aneurin of Heron, but my friends all call me Nye. Now before this grand adventure, most everyone ignored me or picked at me, even though I’m to be the next lord of my clan, because I had never displayed any form of magic. There were even those who thought I shouldn’t be allowed to be the next clan lord because of it.

I live in Feyron, the realm of magic as it’s known on the Worlds Beyond. If the Storyteller was here, she would give you some poetic story about the Guardians of magic and their Realms of Light, but I’m not much of a storyteller. I guess the best way to explain it is, magic…all the magic everywhere, including the magical beings, come from here, and tie back to here. Most clans that were not lost on the Worlds Beyond still remember their ties and return for the Midsummer Solstice each year to renew their magics.

My family lives in Heron Hall, the manor at the top of High Street in Heronton at the edge of the Fertile Plains just beside the Crystal Mountains. My father is the lord of the clan, and when he is ready to begin his Age of Rest, I shall become the lord. My mother was an apprentice scholar in her youth, but like most girls she left studies to start her Second Life. I have two younger sisters, Aideen and Arwyn. Aideen is the Dreamweaver, the first one born since the Guardians were lost during the Time of Sleep. She has a realm’s worth of expectations riding on her shoulders, and the story is really hers, but she thought I should come and chat today as I’ve gone so long without much notice.

Profession…I don’t know if future ‘Lord of the clan’ counts as a profession, but I had just completed summer academy when our…unexpected adventure began. I guess at eighteen summers I really don’t have a profession yet. Our clan are the unicorn-children, and we are gifted from our Guardian creation magics–healing, growing, and innovation. As I don’t have any of those skills or divination magics from my mother, I guess ‘future lord’ is as close as I get to a profession for now, unless you count ‘chaperone of younger sisters’ as one.

2. What happened to you, so you ended up in this crazy adventure the novel talks about?

Well, there’s this girl…I’ve been watching her for a long time. She’s the younger cousin of my best mate, but since they’re from a World Beyond, I only see her for the Winter Solstice ball and summer academy. She has enough mischief in her to be a sprite and enough playfulness to be a dragonkin. It was her wandering off by night and getting herself lost that started all of us on this crazy adventure. I couldn’t likely leave her lost and alone after my sister had a vision of her in the snows at the top of the Crystal Mountains, could I?

3. Do you think you will appear in another story, or would you even want to appear again?

Well, I suspect, being the brother of the Dreamweaver, and after all the places we’ve been in this adventure, there’s bound to be more to come. This is just the beginning of a new age in history, and somehow I doubt we’re done finding new things.

Now, do I want to appear again, that is a whole different question. After so many years of being…well…ignored, I’m not sure I like suddenly being in the spotlight at the center of attention. My mom tells me it’s good for me, that it builds ‘character’ and helps me be ready to join the Court of Clans, but I think, for now, I’m happy to leave that to my father. I guess we’ll just have to see what the girls get up to next. If they need me, they all know that I will always be there.

You can find out more about Diana Wicker on her Website, Facebook or Amazon

Buy the book:

Amazon

Smashwords

B&N

 

Truth about lies

It seems most appropriate to ruminate on truth and lies today, the next day after the April Fools’ Day. All fiction is lies, right? But what makes great fiction? Ah, that would be convincing lies, lies that might’ve been true, lies that every reader believes in while he is reading my book. Such lies tell intimate facts about me, the writer, and simultaneously delve deep into the reader’s psyche. Even if the plot is pure fantasy – dragons or aliens or Regency dukes – the underlying emotions must be truthful enough so the reader could identify and empathize with my heroes.

Am I intrepid enough to write such fiction? Do I have the audacity to bare my soul and let it bleed on the page, so the reader could believe my fabrications? Because make no mistake, such honesty on the writer’s part requires lots of spunk. Sometimes, when too much of me leaks into my characters, I flinch. I want to censor my writing. No need to be too honest in my stories, I tell myself, to admit to my shameful shortcomings or unconventional worldviews. Nobody needs to know THAT about me, right? Wrong!

If I am not 100% open in my fiction, it doesn’t stand a chance. My son taught me this lesson. His elementary school was a trying time for our family. We moved a lot, my relationship with my husband was deteriorating, I had money troubles. To reward himself for all those upheavals at home, my poor boy started filching money from my wallet. Not much, a twenty at a time – to buy sweets or gums or Pokemon cards. Not drugs or cigarettes, thankfully. It took me a few months before I caught on and even longer before I gathered my tattered dignity and talked to him about it. It’s not easy to accuse your nine-year-old child of stealing your money. In the end, he promised he would never do that again and he’s kept his word.

Several years later, already in high school, he came to me on a nice spring morning and shamefully confessed that he was stealing my money again. I’m still cringing inside when I remember that I believed him. I forgot that it was April 1st, the Fools’ Day. We cleared up that misunderstanding pretty soon and laughed together, but I knew he was offended by my belief, and rightfully so. Years passed since that day. He’s thirty now, and a very nice young man. I’m proud of him but I still remember that April 1st.

Did it take courage for him, then a teenager, to come up with such a credible lie, even in jest? I think so. He told me a successful fiction story, and I bought it wholeheartedly. Am I brave enough to lie with such naked truthfulness to my reader? I hope so. What about you?

Fantasy Character Interview #12

Today, my guest is Ashley Thurber, the sixteen-year-old protagonist of Stan Morris’s science fiction YA novel Sam’s Winnings (Book 1 of Tales of the Ragoon).

1. Tell me a little about yourself—your name, profession, where you live, do you have a family, the usual.

My name is Ashley Thurber, and I’m sixteen years old. I was a sophomore at Oakdale High School, but at the moment, I’m a prisoner living at the Merced Human Rehabilitation Center in Merced, California. I’m blond and blue eyed, and I have an older brother and a younger sister. My crime? Technically, it is “failure to report a change in property ownership.” The property in question is me. You see, several years ago, our solar system was invade by Aliens. We call them “the Ragoon,” and they are very creepy aliens that look like giant lizards, except that they don’t have tails.

According to the newspapers, they are businesspeople who need huge amounts of stuff, like hydrogen and helium, from the giant planets in our solar system. They have some kind of code that requires them to pay us for the gas, but it seems like that is just an excuse to meddle in our business. We have to do anything they tell us to do, because there are just too many of them, and they have these tiny cameras that can spy on us. They could wipe us out if they wanted to.

They are hermaphrodites, and they are very prejudiced against people who have more than one gender; men and women, you know? The lady who was Secretary-General of the United Nations said that whenever they invade a solar system that has people with more than one gender, they make one gender become the property of the other gender. So on Earth, they said that woman were now the property of men. My dad is deceased, which means that, technically, I was the property of my brother.

2. What happened to you, so you ended up in this crazy adventure the novel talks about?

Most of the time, Americans just ignore this stupid rule, but sometimes things can happen. You see, my dumb older brother, Jack, was playing poker with a couple of his friends, and they wanted a fourth, so they made this kid, Sam, sit in on the game. Sam was only an eighth grader, and he had this ridiculous crush on me, which was really annoying. Anyway, Sam was winning the poker game, and Jack out of money, so he bet ME! Can you imagine? I have to admit, he had a very good hand, but still… I’m sure you know what happened next. Sam won me, so technically he became my owner. Of course, we all said it was just a joke, even Sam. The problem is that, at my social media sites, I posted what had happened. I didn’t know the lizards were monitoring those sites.

The next thing I knew, our high school, and Sam’s middle school were invaded by the aliens, and we were all arrested for not reporting the change in my ownership status. Jack was shipped to the mines on the moon, and the rest of us were sent to the Human Rehab Center. At first, I was living in a barracks with a bunch of other girls, but recently they moved me to a room in the administration building, so now I’m living in this room with Sam. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Sam has been pretty cool about the whole thing. Something really embarrassing happened the day they moved me into this room, something that made me cry, but Sam was very nice, and I’ve realized that he’s a decent boy. He doesn’t take advantage of me at all, even though I belong to him, and even though the lizards make us sleep in the same bed.

3. Do you like Sam?

Do you mean like as in, do you like him as a friend? The answer is yes, I do. Right now he’s my best friend. He’s trying to get us out of here, and he sticks up for me, even though I keep telling him to be cool and do whatever the lizards tell us to do. I just want to get out of here. I sure my mom is worried sick.

If you mean, would I like him for a boyfriend, then if he was older, maybe I would. But he’s only going to be a freshman, and I was supposed to be a junior, except that now I have to repeat my sophomore year, because that was included in my sentence. Our ages are just too far apart.

You can find out more about Stan Morris on his Website, Twitter or Pinterest

Buy the book:

Amazon

Smashwords

B&N

iTunes

 

Fantasy Character Interview #11

Today, my guest is Elendir, knight of Ten-Ar, the protagonist of Laurel A. Rockefeller’s novel Ghosts of the Past, #2 in the author’s Peers of Beinan series. The genre of the novel is medieval science fiction murder-mystery.

1. Tell me a little about yourself—your name, profession, where you live, do you have a family, the usual.

My name is Elendir, knight of Ten-Ar. Born on BE 6767, beinor 50 in the capital city of Hejing, I am an older brother to Lady Althea, our new Ten-Arian abbess. When my sister was just three beinors old, our father, Lord Healer Devon, perished when terrorists bombed Nan-li Central Healing Center. Our mother, Lady Healer Keelia, tried to raise us both as best she could, but in the end brought us to the Ten-Arian monastery, where we grew up. She herself perished when she returned to work at Our Lady Healing Center in the nearby coastal city of Bira Hecen.

During my studies, I met Queen Darla’s son, Prince Kendric, a young man slightly older than I, who taught laser epee. A life-long friendship developed between Kendric and me. When Lord Yelu murdered my dear friend only twenty yen-ars into his reign as king, I continued to watch over and protect Kendric’s family–first his daughter, the newly crowned Queen Constance, and then her children Prince Caranden, Princess Leonora, and Princess Anyu.

This beinor I live in secret, organizing the resistance against Lord Yelu’s tyrannical coup d’etat, hoping that at least one of the queen’s children remains free and able to return to help us free our people.

2. What happened to you, so you ended up in this crazy adventure the novel talks about?

The murder of my parents haunted me across my youth. Upon my elevation to knighthood at the age of sixty yen-ars, I petitioned Prince Kendric for permission to investigate my father’s murder. My quest to find the truth spanned many yen-ars and took me through many crazy adventures. Being especially reckless in my youth, I made some terrible decisions during my quest to find the answers I needed, allowing people to use me to hurt those I love. But in my journey, I also found peace and hope for the future.

3. Tell us something that you hope no one on Beinan ever finds out.

I hope Queen Constance never finds out that I know all about her connection to Lord Morlong and the ways he has influenced her since the death of her husband, Lord Engineer Kian of house Xing-li. I hope no one on Beinan finds out that I do not trust Morlong, despite his apparently “good” counsel and advice, and suspect him of treachery.

You can find out more about Laurel A. Rockefeller on her website, Facebook or Twitter

Buy Ghosts of the Past on Amazon

Fantasy Character Interview #10

Today, my guest is Kealan Machaon, the male protagonist of my fantasy novel Almost Adept.

1. Tell me a little about yourself—your name, profession, where you live, do you have a family, the usual.

I’m Kealan Machaon. I live in Grumesh. Before the war with Roodim ten years ago, I was the Captain of the High Guard, the elite fighting force of the Grumesh Republic. Then the Roodiman Empire invaded my country, and I became an outlaw. My family is no more, the High Guard has been disbanded, and all my surviving former comrades are in hiding, under a death sentence. I myself lead a double life. Overtly, I make my living as a courier, under an assumed name. I couldn’t even keep my own name – there is a price on my head.

Fortunately, while delivering packages all around the countryside and abroad, I’m able to smuggle my former comrades out of Grumesh, one family at a time. With those who decided to stay and fight, we’ve kept the underground resistance going for the past ten years. I’m still their captain, but recently, I began to doubt our purpose. Perhaps we should stop fighting and learn to live under the new regime? Most of the citizens of Grumesh have accepted the new rule and are doing very well. If only the Roodiman army would stop hunting us.

2. What happened to you, so you ended up in this crazy adventure the novel talks about?

I delivered a parcel to a mage in the neighboring kingdom of Varelia. At the mage’s home, I encountered his young daughter, Lady Eri, also a magician. Then fate brought us together again, Eri and me, on the way back to Grumesh. It seems we have been traveling to the same destination. She is such a pretty little magician, naïve and spoiled. I wasn’t going to allow such an innocent girl to get entangled in my affairs – I have a price on my head, remember – but she wouldn’t listen. For some reason, this charming lassie decided to help me and my cause. She is going to get all my comrades out of Grumesh, out of danger, with her magic. I’ll do all I can to help her.

3. Do you love Eri? 

I think I’m falling in love with her, yes, but I’ll never tell her. She has been flirting with me too, the silly girl, but what can I offer to a beautiful foreign magician fifteen years younger than me? She has shining eyes and a glorious future, while I have no home, no position, and no future, only my troubles and my enemies. I can’t take advantage of her.

Buy Almost Adept:

• Amazon

• Burst Books

Our Favorite Thieves

Re-blogged from Tangled In Pages

I’m sure you detest the thieves who broke into your neighbors’ house last summer and stole a bunch of expensive electronics. Or the pickpockets in the crowded Mediterranean market who stole your cousin’s wallet. Or the loathsome identity thieves who hacked into your coworker’s account and stole her passwords. But so many of us enjoy reading about charismatic thieves in fantasy fiction. The list Thieves on GoodReads includes 409 titles, many of them bestsellers. Over 700 readers voted on that list. Why?

I think the difference between real life thieves and fantasy thieves is in their goals and their victims. The real thieves steal for money, from regular people—us. No ambiguity there. The fantasy thieves… well, that’s a different story. Some of them, our favorite thieves, steal exclusively from bad guys and often have nobler purposes: to save a lover, to rescue a princess, to liberate prisoners, to feed the poor, or in the extreme cases, to save their own necks. And we, the readers, cheer for them.

Seventeen-year-old Eriale, the protagonist of my fantasy novel “Almost Adept”, is not a thief. She is a magician. Sheltered and adored by her family until recently, she is on her own for the first time in her life, on a quest to prove her Adept potential. And she repeatedly stumbles into situations where she has no other option but to steal.

Her first encounter with thievery happens, when she hears a magical call for help. Gem fairies—the tiny elementals living in a tourmaline crystal—are dying. After their crystal had been cut off their mother lode, they need a magician to feed them magic. But their owner, a gem merchant, mocks Eriale, when she asks to buy the crystal from him.

Compelled to help the fairies and pressed for time—they would die if she didn’t hurry—she steals them from the merchant. She doesn’t feel guilt or remorse. She tried to do the right thing, but when he wouldn’t listen to her explanations, she did what was necessary to save the sentient beings.

Her second thievery occurs later on her journey, when she whisks a man out of a local prison, liberating him from the torturers. She is positive that whatever the man had done, he doesn’t deserve to be tortured to death. Nobody deserves such a terrible fate.

Her third thievery is a combination of revenge and need, simultaneously solving her money problem and freeing her to pursue a complex and dangerous magical task, the task that could benefit too many people to count but could also kill her. If she is risking her life for the others, the least they can do is pay her expenses, right?

In all cases, she steals to help strangers, and her victims are invariably bullies or swindlers. If she could achieve her goals any other way, she would, and the same is true for most fantasy thieves. J.R.R Tolkien and Rick Riordan, Scott Lynch and Cornelia Funke, William Goldman and Brandon Sanderson, and many other talented writers gave us the charming, roguish thieves who steal out of altruism … almost. Altruistic thievery—what a nice oxymoron. I hope my readers will root for Eriale as much as they do for all those other fantasy thieves.